


Empty Branches

by Liadt



Category: 15th Century CE RPF, Henry VI - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen, Genealogy, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-20 06:12:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4776590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liadt/pseuds/Liadt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young Richard contemplates his family tree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empty Branches

**Author's Note:**

> Set roughly in early 1424 when Richard was 12, in real time, if not Shakespeare's.

As the sun went down, Richard was sitting on a windowsill, in a quiet corner. In his hands he held a rumpled square of parchment. The boy unfolded the parchment, smoothed down the creases and placed it on the ledge. It was something he held very dear. On the sheet he had written out what he knew of his bloodline. He didn’t need it to recall who his forefathers were, but he kept it all the same. He had heard all the tales of the great men the boy king was related to, but his relatives were a list of names, with not even a brief family reminiscence attached to them. Were they great or were they devils? He didn't know, except his father, whose deeds led others to call him traitor. Richard thought this was unfair; no one said anything against King Henry VI's grandfather who had also plotted against his own king, Richard II. Cousins shouldn’t kill cousins, thought Richard.

He read out the names softly. It was as if by reciting them, he was casting some kind of spell that made the words on the page glow like the sun. It warmed him inside. Aside from Isabel, his sister, Richard had no immediate family and she had been sent to live with her betrothed’s family. His mother had died soon after his birth and with Henry V’s aid, his father followed her to the grave a few years later. He’d had two uncles, but the only living one was incarcerated and might as well be dead. The scrap of parchment gave him comfort. It told him he was not alone - he had a family. True, not a flesh and blood one, but it existed like the paper did. His guardian Ralph Neville, the Earl of Westmoreland, had no need of a list, but, then again, Neville had so many children perhaps it would help him keep track of them, smiled Richard to himself. When he had first arrived at his new guardian’s home he had been overwhelmed by Westmoreland’s large brood. However, it was refreshing to come to this busy household from a small one, where his former guardian dutifully impressed upon his young ward how magnificent King Henry was. To Richard’s relief, the Nevilles were far too concerned with themselves to continue this task.

One day he would have a family of his own, with more branches than the Nevilles, if that was possible. They would be more than names on a page and nobody would be able to order him around. He had some noble blood running through his veins and yet it had not protected him from being treated like an animal in a cattle market, with his wardship and marriage being sold off to the highest bidder. Well, when he came of age the new King and the usurping House of Lancaster wouldn’t find, despite their best efforts, they had made a placid bull out of him, thought Richard, determinedly, as he gazed at the red sky left by the setting sun. He then folded up the parchment, hide it under his clothing next to his breast and went to find out who was falling out with who around the dining table this evening.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where Isabel was in 1424, but the other biographical information is taken from books.


End file.
